The final week of the split had plenty of twists in its tail, but Unicorns and Fnatic emerged victorious at the end of it all.
It was crunch time in the EU LCS this past week. The last week of the summer split, with playoffs just around the corner and Worlds drifting into view in the near distance. G2 esports, despite a disappointing split by their standards, still had a slim chance to finish top of group A if results went their way. Group B was even more exciting, with the top three teams all in contention for a playoff spot at the start of the week.
G2’s dreams of first place were over quickly, however. An unexpected defeat at the hands of Roccat in the week’s opening game meant that they were unable to sneak up the rankings and catch Fnatic. Which was lucky for Fnatic themselves, who proceeded to lose an even more shocking match against Ninjas in Pyjamas. Previously, the Ninjas had only won a single game all split, so to take a win from the best team in the region - even if they were trying something new - is a nice way for NiP to end a disappointing season. While Fnatic will still head to the playoffs, NiP are heading in the opposite direction.
H2K started Friday off by bullying the LCS’s other struggling team, Mysterious Monkeys. The win secured a top two spot for H2K with an important match against UOL to come on Sunday. Speaking of the Unicorns, they continued the week’s trend of surprising results by losing 2-0 against Vitality.
Saturday began with another win for Roccat. Victory over Misfits is hardly the king slaying task that Roccat has become famous for, but a 2-0 week to the end the season will leave fans and players wondering what might have been if this form has come sooner in the split. Saturday’s main event was definitely Fnatic vs G2, however. Fnatic proved again that they are the best team in Europe right now, winning fairly comfortably by two games to zero. Broxah was the man to watch, going 0/0/19 in two jungle games.
Splyce ended their summer split with a moral-boosting but ultimately meaningless win over Vitality as a curtain-raiser for the match of the week. A win for either side would secure first place, and a better seed for the playoffs. H2K started off with a dominant win in game one, ending with an 18k gold lead and up 22-6 in kills. But UOL battled back in game two, flipping the tables with a Baron kill, forcing the last match of the season to a third game. This time it was UOL who ran rampant. Samux went 9/0/6 on Xayah, with Xerxe’s Poppy also going death-less to give UOL a convincing win to close out the regular season.
